• nVidia driver problems

    From Grimble@2:250/1 to All on Mon Dec 27 16:19:46 2021
    Trying to sort my driver problems:
    drakx11 tells me the proprietary driver wasn't installed correctly
    I can find no combination of driver module/monitor parameter values that doesn't end in EE error
    startx as root give me a poor definition GUI - nowhere near the 1920 x
    1080 the monitor is capable of.
    So I thought :enough (or words to that effect) reinstall Mageia 8
    So now I can't complete the partition step because apparently I must
    have a BIOS boot partition. How did the previous installation complete? Confused of Dorset
    --
    Grimble
    Registered Linux User #450547
    Machine 'Bach' running Plasma 5.20.4 on 5.15.6-desktop-2.mga8 kernel.
    Mageia release 8 (Official) for x86_64

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    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Grimble@2:250/1 to All on Mon Dec 27 16:23:58 2021
    Trying to sort my driver problems:
    Added: The steps proposed bby Dave H to get round a previous problem
    (recreate /home/user did not work
    drakx11 tells me the proprietary driver wasn't installed correctly
    I can find no combination of driver module/monitor parameter values that doesn't end in EE error
    startx as root give me a poor definition GUI - nowhere near the 1920 x
    1080 the monitor is capable of.
    So I thought :enough (or words to that effect) reinstall Mageia 8
    So now I can't complete the partition step because apparently I must
    have a BIOS boot partition. How did the previous installation complete? Confused of Dorset
    --
    Grimble
    Registered Linux User #450547
    Machine 'Bach' running Plasma 5.20.4 on 5.15.6-desktop-2.mga8 kernel.
    Mageia release 8 (Official) for x86_64

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From David W. Hodgins@2:250/1 to All on Mon Dec 27 18:00:20 2021
    On Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:23:58 -0500, Grimble <grimble@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

    Trying to sort my driver problems:
    Added: The steps proposed bby Dave H to get round a previous problem (recreate /home/user did not work
    drakx11 tells me the proprietary driver wasn't installed correctly
    I can find no combination of driver module/monitor parameter values that doesn't end in EE error
    startx as root give me a poor definition GUI - nowhere near the 1920 x
    1080 the monitor is capable of.
    So I thought :enough (or words to that effect) reinstall Mageia 8
    So now I can't complete the partition step because apparently I must
    have a BIOS boot partition. How did the previous installation complete? Confused of Dorset

    The partition table layout has been changed from dos mbr format to gpt format.

    With dos mbr format, grub stores it's boot loader starting in sector 2 of track
    0 (sector 1 contains the master boot record).

    With gpt, there is no room in the first track, so a empty partition (not formatted,
    called the bios boot partition) is required for grub to store it's loader.

    Either switch back to using the dos mbr partition table layout or create the empty
    bios boot partition.

    Regards, Dave Hodgins

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  • From Grimble@2:250/1 to All on Tue Dec 28 15:57:11 2021
    On 27/12/2021 18:00, David W. Hodgins wrote:
    On Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:23:58 -0500, Grimble <grimble@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

    SNIP

    The partition table layout has been changed from dos mbr format to gpt format.

    With dos mbr format, grub stores it's boot loader starting in sector 2
    of track
    0 (sector 1 contains the master boot record).

    With gpt, there is no room in the first track, so a empty partition (not formatted,
    called the bios boot partition) is required for grub to store it's loader.

    Either switch back to using the dos mbr partition table layout or create
    the empty
    bios boot partition.

    Regards, Dave Hodgins
    OK, created an empty partition (/dev/sda7 on my disk, parted calls it
    grub2 core.img)
    Installation completed but reboot landed me in grub rescue mode. A file /boot/grub2/x86_64-efi/normal.mod
    doesn't exist: very true, the directory x86_64-efi hasn't been created.
    I notice on another Mageia8 installation normal.mod is located in the sub-directory grub2/i386-pc.
    Thought I could place normal.mod where grub could find it, but no:
    "invalid arch-dependent ELF magic"
    So why has boot loader installation created a different architecture
    from precvious installation. Can I use Mageia rescue function to
    re-install boot loader?
    --
    Grimble
    Registered Linux User #450547
    Machine 'Bach' running Plasma 5.20.4 on 5.15.6-desktop-2.mga8 kernel.
    Mageia release 8 (Official) for x86_64

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Aragorn@2:250/1 to All on Tue Dec 28 16:55:51 2021
    On 28.12.2021 at 15:57, Grimble scribbled:

    On 27/12/2021 18:00, David W. Hodgins wrote:
    On Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:23:58 -0500, Grimble
    <grimble@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
    =20
    SNIP
    =20
    The partition table layout has been changed from dos mbr format to
    gpt format.
    =20
    With dos mbr format, grub stores it's boot loader starting in
    sector 2 of track 0 (sector 1 contains the master boot record).
    =20
    With gpt, there is no room in the first track, so a empty partition
    (not formatted, called the bios boot partition) is required for
    grub to store it's loader.
    =20
    Either switch back to using the dos mbr partition table layout or
    create the empty bios boot partition.

    Note that the above is only relevant if the system boots up in legacy
    BIOS mode. =20

    If the system instead boots up in native UEFI mode, then the bios_grub partition is not needed, but then there must be an EFI system partition instead, of about 300 MiB in size (in order to be compliant with most installers), and formatted as vfat (FAT32). This partition must be
    marked with the "esp" flag.

    OK, created an empty partition (/dev/sda7 on my disk, parted calls it=20 grub2 core.img)
    Installation completed but reboot landed me in grub rescue mode. A
    file /boot/grub2/x86_64-efi/normal.mod
    doesn't exist: very true, the directory x86_64-efi hasn't been
    created. I notice on another Mageia8 installation normal.mod is
    located in the sub-directory grub2/i386-pc.
    Thought I could place normal.mod where grub could find it, but no:=20 "invalid arch-dependent ELF magic"
    So why has boot loader installation created a different architecture=20
    from precvious installation. Can I use Mageia rescue function to=20 re-install boot loader?

    I am guessing that your system attempts to boots up in native UEFI mode
    when booting from the internal drive but that you did the partitioning
    from the live CD/USB in legacy BIOS mode. "x86_64-efi" is the GRUB
    designation for a native UEFI boot, while 386pc is the GRUB designation
    for a legacy BIOS boot. =20

    While GRUB visually looks the same across both boot methods, the
    versions of the boot loader installed are very different. The legacy
    BIOS version is 16-bit and runs in the boot processor's real mode =E2=80=94=
    on
    one core only, without hyperthreading =E2=80=94 while the UEFI-aware versio=
    n of
    GRUB is a 64-bit UEFI executable running in the processor's long mode.

    UEFI executables are themselves running as extensions of the UEFI
    firmware, and their binary format is the same as that of the NT-based
    versions of Microsoft Windows, because Microsoft is on the UEFI
    Committee.


    [nx-74205:/dev/pts/3][/root] # file /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi=20
    /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi: PE32+ executable (EFI application)
    x86-64 (stripped to external PDB), for MS Windows


    --=20
    With respect,
    =3D Aragorn =3D


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  • From David W. Hodgins@2:250/1 to All on Tue Dec 28 19:25:29 2021
    On Tue, 28 Dec 2021 11:55:51 -0500, Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be> wrote:
    While GRUB visually looks the same across both boot methods, the
    versions of the boot loader installed are very different. The legacy
    BIOS version is 16-bit and runs in the boot processor's real mode — on
    one core only, without hyperthreading — while the UEFI-aware version of GRUB is a 64-bit UEFI executable running in the processor's long mode.

    There is a slight difference in the installer boot screen so you can tell if it's been booted in uefi mode or not.

    https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Installing_on_systems_with_UEFI_firmware#How_to_distinguish_between_UEFI_and_BIOS_mode_for_Mageia_boot_media

    To see if a currently booted system was booted in uefi mode or not, check to see
    if /sys/firmware/efi/ exists. If it does, the boot was done in uefi mode.

    Regards, Dave Hodgins

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    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)
  • From Grimble@2:250/1 to All on Wed Dec 29 17:15:38 2021
    On 28/12/2021 15:57, Grimble wrote:
    On 27/12/2021 18:00, David W. Hodgins wrote:
    On Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:23:58 -0500, Grimble
    <grimble@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:

    SNIP

    Thanks Aragorn, David. Reinstalled from the correct partition of my USB
    stick and now everythings OK.


    --
    Grimble
    Registered Linux User #450547
    Machine 'Bach' running Plasma 5.20.4 on 5.15.6-desktop-2.mga8 kernel.
    Mageia release 8 (Official) for x86_64

    --- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (2:250/1@fidonet)